


Keeping Watch

by Oparu



Series: The Bottomless Sea 'Verse / Dragon Outlaw Queen ficlets [16]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Other, Polyamory, Roland takes being a big brother very seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 21:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7908874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Roland used to be such an early riser. But once the baby comes, he starts sleeping in and Regina gets worried.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Watch

**Author's Note:**

> Baby's name isn't mentioned so it can be a surprise when she's born. (I'm working on it, this was just cute and needed to be written. 
> 
> Thanks to sometimesangryblackwoman for the prompt.

 

Regina stares at his place for too long before she takes down the cereal and leaves it there for when Roland gets up. Maleficent watches Regina worry, the baby tugging at her breast, and can’t get her exhausted mind to focus. Robin swears that’s normal. The baby sleeps in little spurts of time, better when she’s held, so she’s passed around from one adult to another. Sometimes she even sleeps on Henry’s lap while he’s reading. 

Roland comes down for breakfast while the baby’s eating again. He smiles at her and Regina both, eyes bright even though he keeps yawning. He finishes his cereal and runs off to play. 

* * *

“Maybe the baby keeps him up,” Regina wonders over the dishes. 

Robin pats her back and then takes over, racking up the plates. “It’s a big change, and he has school. Perhaps he’s adjusting.”

Mal leans in the doorway, watching them worry. The baby stares up at her with blue-brown eyes so dark that they could be the sea. She strokes her cheek and misses what else they say. Regina’s still worried. That’s in her face when she sits down with her wine. Robin takes the sleepy baby and he will rock her and hum to her until she falls asleep. 

Watching Regina fidget with her glass, she contemplates words, but again, they fail her. Robin takes the baby up and they sit, facing each other in silence. 

Finishing her wine, Regina crosses the room and curls on the sofa next to her, her head against Maleficent’s milk-swollen breasts. Mal toys with her hair, running her fingers through so they brush the back of Regina’s neck. 

That ends in them kissing, Regina’s mouth soft against her own. 

“I love watching you with her,” Regina says, her voice half a whisper.

Mal tilts her head. “Half-asleep? Utterly confused?”

“Maternal,” she answers. She kisses her cheek and sighs before she drags herself off the sofa. “I’m glad you get this.” 

* * *

This is a sleepy sort of nesting during which everyone around her moves at a pace far too rapid for her to comprehend. The baby eats voraciously, she sleeps in stretches of quiet. She stares wide-eyed at the faces who smile at her, Regina, Robin, Henry, Lily and Roland, who loves standing guard over her on the blanket. 

He knows she can’t have legos, that she’s too little to play with much of anything, but he beams when she holds his finger in her little fist. He laughs and she makes happy little chirping sounds. 

Lily holds her sister like she’s made of glass, like she’s sculpture spun too fine. Regina and Robin hold her easily, comfortable, balancing her while they do other things. Using one arm while cooking breakfast or helping Roland make his lunch. 

Regina watches him yawn and frowns. 

Again. 

The haze is compounded by no one needing her to do anything. There’s feeding the baby, and holding the baby when no one else can console her. Robin and Regina are all too quick to take her and change her. Maleficent’s own eating and sleeping mirror the baby’s in a twisted shadow. She’s hungry, often and always, thirsty, and comfortably so buried in a sleepy sort of haze that she’s not sure how many days have passed. 

The baby wakes her in the middle of the night, hungry, lonely, and that little mouth attaches to her breast while she lays on her side, facing the door and the closet. It’s dark, but she can see in darkness. Baby suckles sleepily, only half-interested in her eating. Robin and Regina sleep on, both too tired to stir if the baby’s content. 

Something moves: a shape in the closet, a body, someone–

“Roland?”

“Shhh,” he whispers to her. It is him, not some kind of sleeplessness-induced hallucination. “Sleeping.”

“You should be sleeping.”

He creeps along the floor towards her then peers at the baby’s dark head at her breast. “I have to guard my baby.”

Clouded as her mind is, that clicks into place like clockwork.  “Guard her?”

“Someone might take her,” he says, eyes wide and solemn. “Like Lily.”

Her chest aches, burst with emotion. “Dearest–”

“You weren’t supposed to see me,” he whispers. “I’m merry men.” 

She shuts her eyes because crying will only confuse him, but she’s tired and he’s quick. He’s gone by the time the baby’s done. 

* * *

 

Regina frowns at the stairs in the morning, arms folded. 

Henry and Robin make pancakes, Henry doing most of all work because the little one’s asleep on Robin’s chest. Lily should be over with coffee and raspberries. 

“He’s still oversleeping,” she says to Robin. He kisses her cheek and shifts the sleeping baby to her, which makes her smile. 

“Maybe it’s a growth spurt.”

“He’s watching her,” Maleficent says, drawing their attention. “Roland, he wakes up and sneaks into our room to check on his baby.”

“What?” Robin’s smile could ignite stars. 

“He’s very sneaky.”

“Are you certain?” 

It’s her turn to yawn into her hand. “I caught him last night. He’s-” her voice falters and the tears return, hot and grateful. “He’s making sure no one takes his baby.” 

Regina's little sob catches in her throat. Robin kisses her cheek, then her lips and turns his eyes to the ceiling. 

“Our tiny hero.”

“You saw him?”

Maleficent nods. “I’m tired, but not insane yet.”

“He can’t do that,” Regina says, shaking her head. “She’s safe.”

“I know,” Mal promises her and Robin, because they’ve worked so hard. “He must have heard me, heard us–”

“No one takes my baby,” Roland announces from the doorway, hands on his hips. “She’s ours.” 

Robin scoops him up as if he were the little one, kissing his cheek. “That’s right. She’s ours and we’ll keep her safe.” 

Regina’s expression falters on the edge of tears and she nods over the baby’s sweet head. “That we will.”

Mal hugs Roland as tight as she can before pancakes are finished. “You are a very great merry man, the most gallant.”

“What’s gallant?”

“Being heroic, brave, fearless, all the things that you are.”

“Okay,” he says, grinning at her, then turning to Regina. “I’m a hero for our baby.” 

“You are,” Regina agrees, truly losing the battle with her tears. “You really are.” 


End file.
